Hashirama Senju Academy
by ebonyShadowed
Summary: The Konoha twelve make their way through puberty, dealing with family, friendship, romance and everything else that comes with growing up. Multiple pairings. AU middle/high school
1. Ch 1 Last Day

**Hashirama Senju Academy**

**Ch. 1**

**Last Day**

_Rated K+ for nonsexual bras and bastard_

A knock on the walnut wood door of her bedroom startled young Hinata awake.

"Miss Hinata, it is time to wake up," came the muffled voice of Hinata's personal caretaker, Fusa. Hinata sighed and rubbed her eyes. She glanced at the Seiko Décor Vela clock on her white wooden nightstand, it read seven.

"Miss Hinata?"

"I'm awake now, Fusa," Hinata called back sitting up and stretching before pushing her lavender comforter and plum sheets off her.

"Breakfast is in an hour," Fusa replied before walking off.

Hinata got up and made her bed. After she had placed every lavender, purple, cream, white, and plum pillow in their proper spots, she padded barefoot over the fluffy purple rug that interrupted the cream velvet carpeting of her room, and into her spacious bathroom. The bathroom was white marbled floors, pristine white walls, and pale pink quartz sink and counter. The walk-in shower was also made of pink quartz surrounded by spotless glass and the toilet and claw foot tub were made of white porcelain. All the metal was gold and the towels white. It was beautiful, feminine, cold and expensive, designed by one the country's top interior designers and built by the best, paid for by Hinata's father after he and her mother had found out their first child was going to be a girl. As Hinata started her morning ruitine she wondered what the man who had paid for this royalty worthy bathroom for his unborn daughter had been like. Who was that man who had spared no expense to make his wife and baby happy? Had he laughed? Smiled with ease? Had he showered her with kisses, hugs, and I-love-yous? For the thousandth time in her short existence Hinata wondered how a man like that turned into the man she knew as father today, a man who could barely be bothered to wish her a good morning or a good night, a man who gave no praise, only scorn and dissatisfaction, freckled with harsh judgment. And for the thousandth time Hinata could not come up with any plausible explanation.

Wrapped in a fluffy white robe Hinata dismissed her thoughts, reentered her bedroom and threw open the double white birch wood doors to her sizable walk-in closet, another thing her father of the past had insisted his unborn daughter would need as she grew older. She pulled open a large drawer on her right full of underwear, panties on the right and bras on the left, all made of simple colors and plain cotton. While most other girls her age were wearing small cutesy bralettes made of bright colors and often adorned with bows and sometimes even frills or lace, Hinata was already wearing women's underwire bras and had to wear women's sports bras when going outside to play. It was humiliating for the young girl; neighborhood girls teased her and teenaged boys often came on to her. With no mother to help her through the start of puberty two and a half years ago, Hinata had often laid in her bed, trying to hide her body from the world, thinking herself a freak.

Reluctantly Hinata picked out a white bra and panty set. The panties were no problem, but with horror Hinata realized the edges of her bra cups were digging into her chest uncomfortably and causing her to spill out slightly.

"No…" Hinata moaned, "Oh no, no." She desperately tried adjusting herself, but no matter what the bra would not fit. With a cry of frustration she threw the bra into the far corner of her closet. She could believe she was going to have to get a bigger size, she was already a B. Choking back tears and trying to gain composure she put on one of her sports bras and turned to her clothes. Before she could pick something out however, a loud, incessant knocking on her door made her jump.

"Hinata—" came the sing-song voice of her five years younger baby sister Hanabi, "Can I come in?"

"Yes," Hinata called back, returning her attention to her closet.

Hanabi skipped in closing the door behind her and joined Hinata in the closet, where she proceeded to pick out the frilliest, flashiest, and brightest clothes in Hinata's closet for her older sister to wear. After rejecting all of Hanabi's suggestions, Hinata settled on an oversized plain purple t-shirt, a white short sleeved hoodie, and a pair of capri jeans. Turning around to face her shoe wall with full intentions of wearing her everyday white and purple Skechers, Hinata instead found a pair of sparkly purple Converse shoved in face.

"Hey, why don't you wear these? I haven't ever seen you wear them" Hanabi asked, her head tilted to the side. Truth be told Hinata had fallen in love with the shoes while out shopping with Fusa in January and had decided to spend her left over birthday money on them, but when she had got home, put them on and looked in the mirror, she had felt foolish; she could only imagine what people would say seeing plain, weirdo Hinata Hyuga wearing such bright, pretty shoes and so had put them in her closet to never be used.

"Well they're not really my style," Hinata hedged, trying to move around her little sister and reach her Skechers, but Hanabi blocked her path.

"Why not? They're pretty and purple, two things you like."

"It's just…they're too...flashy for me," Hinata explained while trying to move around her sister the opposite way. Hanabi blocked her again.

"I don't get it. I think you should wear them." Hanabi pushed the shoes into Hinata stomach and began poking her with them.

"Hanabi…" Hinata whined, but Hanabi only poked harder. With a loud expulsion of breath Hinata snatched the shoes out of her sister's hands and sat down at the purple chasie lounge in the middle of the closet to put them on. Hanabi danced around Hinata chanting "Pretty shoes, pretty shoes" all the way through the house until they reached the dining room. At the sight of the large imposing mahogany doors the hyper girl grew quiet and stood, suddenly solemn, behind her sister. Hinata knocked twice on the doors and after a moment opened one and walked into the room.

Like every morning their father sat at the head of the table a cup of coffee steaming in front of him and the newspaper next to it his eyes locked on the business section.

"Good morning father," the girls spoke in unison.

"Hm," he replied his eyes never leaving the paper. The girls took their seats Hinata on his right hand side and Hanabi next to her. A moment later came two knocks at the huge double doors and the girls' older cousin Neji walked into the room.

"Good morning Uncle."

"Hm." Neji took his place across from Hinata on Hiashi's left hand side.

"Good morning cousins," he greeted.

"Good morning cousin."

"'Morning Neji." With that breakfast commenced as usual, without any speech. Once everyone was finished with their food Hiashi dismissed the children, who all strode quickly out into the hallway.

"Hey Neji, do you hafta go to school today?" Hanabi asked tugging on the sleeve of his uniform white dress shirt while they walked towards the entryway, Hinata following quietly behind.

"Yes, today is my last day before summer vacation," Neji replied.

"And then you get to stay home with us for a loooong time right?" Hanabi asked eagerly bouncing around the older children. Neji nodded and grabbed his dark blue back pack from where it had been placed by a servant on a bench in the foyer. Hanabi squealed, hugged Neji around his waist, and skipped back down the hallway singing a made up song consisting of "summer," "Neji," "Hinata," and "fun." Neji rolled his eyes at his youngest cousin's antics and headed to the door.

"Have a good day cousin," Hinata called out as he stepped over the threshold.

"You as well," he replied and closed the door, leaving Hinata alone in the hallway.

For hopefully the last time in her life Hinata met with her homeschooling tutors in the library of her house. It was a family tradition that children be homeschooled from the age of three to twelve and then attend private school until graduation at eighteen. Neji, being a year Hinata's senior, was finishing up his first year at Hashirama Senju Academy which held grades 7th through 12th and Hinata would be attending for the first time at the end of this summer. After five hours and a half hour lunch break, Hinata was free for the summer. Fusa met her in the hallway outside the library.

"What would you like to do today Miss Hinata?"

"Um, c-could you please see if Sh-shino and K-kiba can come play in the b-backyard?" Hinata timidly asked looking at her sparkly feet.

"Of course Miss," Fusa said and walked away. Hinata waited until she was out of sight and then ran to the backyard. As she waited for her only friends to show up Hinata tended her garden that had been started by her mother after she had married her father and had continued up until a few weeks before her death. It was now Hinata's pride and joy. Because neither Kiba nor Shino were homeschooled like her, it was a little over an hour before she heard her name being yelled from the back gate. Hinata removed her gardening gloves and jogged over to let the two boys in.

"Hey," Kiba greeted walking into her backyard like it was his own.

"Good afternoon Hinata," Shino said more respectfully.

Hinata smiled at the two boys who were her only two friends, happy as ever to see them. Kiba and Shino were her neighbors. Both from old wealthy families like hers. Shino came from a long line of doctors, scientists, and professors, one of his great grandfathers was the founder of Hashirama Senju Academy and Shino's father Shibi Aburame was the dean at the prestigious Konoha Private University as well as a highly esteemed pathologist. Kiba's family was not quit as old as the Aburames or Hyugas, but was old enough that Hiashi had deemed him an acceptable playmate for his daughter. His family owned nearly every vet office in town as well as the pet supply stores and even the zoo and his mother, Tsume Inuzuka, was a world renowned zoologist as well as a part-time professor at KPU. Shino and Kiba had been brought together practically since birth since they were less than a month apart in age, and Kiba had joined the duo about six months later, his mother bringing him over for a play date when he was only eight days old. The three had been inseparable since spending some part of almost every day together. The three sat together beneath a huge oak tree that lived at the far end of the Hyugas backyard where they could not be seen from the house because of the other smaller trees that occupied the land.

"Ah, it's finally summer," Kiba said as he sat cross legged, leaning against the tree.

"And after Hinata will finally be able to attend school with us," Shino commented, gracing Hinata with a rare, brief smile.

"Ugh, don't talk about school at the beginning of summer," Kiba complained ripping up some grass and throwing it at the sunglassed boy who just calmly wiped it off. Hinata however was happy at Shino's words; she couldn't wait to be able to leave this cold house every day and spend time with her two best friends and hopefully, maybe, just maybe, meet more people she could call friends.

X3 Hinata X3

The door to Naruto's room was thrown open and the lights flicked on.

"Time to wake up! Breakfast starts in half an hour," yelled a woman's voice from the doorway. Naruto rolled over and pressed his face into his pillow trying to block out the noise of five other people waking up. A few minutes later however he felt a hand shoving his shoulder.

"Get up Naruto," it said.

"Go away bastard," Naruto groaned into his pillow.

"Why do I do this every morning," the voice muttered before violently ripping off Naruto's blanket and tipping his bed so he fell on the floor. Naruto swore and picked himself up off the floor, glaring at the black haired boy across from him.

"I'm up now, happy?"

"Ecstatic," Sasuke said before walking out the room his arms crossed.

Naruto made his bed and dressed quickly in an orange and white striped t-shirt, black shorts, and old, worn-out off brand sneakers, all second hand. Grabbing comb and toothbrush, he left the room where three younger boys where standing together watching him, he heard them explode into loud whispers behind him. After breakfast, he and Sasuke left the orphanage and walked to school together like every other day, lagging behind the rest of the elementary school going orphans. It was the last day of school and Naruto was a bit depressed although he didn't show it outwardly. While at the moment he and Sasuke were both equal orphans, it had not always been that way. Sasuke was originally from a very old and wealthy family who over the period of a few years had all suddenly, suspiciously died off, leaving seven year old Sasuke and his twelve year old brother Itachi orphans. Because Sasuke was from such a family, plans had been made for him in case of such a situation. One of the plans was that he attend the expensive private school Hashirama Senju Academy, where his brother had just graduated from last weekend. Naruto on the other hand had been an orphan since he was less than a year old, his parents, whom, from what Naruto knew, were average people, having died in a car crash that had caused the scars on Naruto's face. This meant that Naruto would be split up from his best friend soon for the first time in five years, while Naruto attended the local public middle school and still lived at the orphanage and Sasuke attended his fancy school on the other side of town and lived in its private dorms. These thoughts caused Naruto to scowl and kick his feet. Noticing Naruto's behavior Sasuke punched his shoulder, causing Naurto to stumble off the sidewalk.

"What was that for bastard!" Naruto yelled, putting his fists up, ready to fight. Sasuke just shoved his hands into his pockets and continued walking to school.

"You should be happy it's the last day of school, idiot," Sasuke muttered staring straight ahead. Naruto slowly lowered his fists gazing at the retreating back of his friend. Breaking out in a huge grin Naruto ran up to Sasuke and wrapped his arms around the taller boy.

"Aww, I love you too Saucy," Naruto cooed, before breaking up into hysterical laughter.

"Ugh, get off you weirdo," Sasuke grunted shoving the blonde off his person. Naruto just continued laughing and followed Sasuke the rest of the way to school.

*3 Sasuke *3

Sakura woke up to the music of Avril Lavigne playing from her castle shaped alarm clock. She pushed the off button and stretched luxuriously in her pink sheets, pushing her multitude of stuffed animals dangerously close to the edge of her white princess bed. She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to start her morning routine. Wrapped in a pink robe she picked out her clothes for the day, a pink polo shirt, a jean skirt, and white leggings. She completed the outfit with gold ballet flats, small gold hoops in her ears, and a few colorful plastic bracelets. After posing in the mirror a couple times Sakura blew her reflection a kiss and skipped downstairs to her kitchen. On the island was a plate of pancakes topped with strawberries, scrambled eggs, and turkey bacon.

"Morning sweetheart," called Sakura's mother from where she was washing dishes at the sink.

"Morning," Sakura replied before digging in to her breakfast.

When she had finished her mother drove her to school and kissed her on the cheek before she grabbed her backpack and leapt out of the white suv. She made her way over to the four benches in the grassy area of the playground next to two maple trees. It was the area where the cool older kids hung out before and after school and during recess. Today was Sakura's last day as an older kid before she became the youngest in middle school in a few months. Waving at her from the cool spot was her blonde best friend Ino. Also at the spot were three other girls and two boys that Sakura was not particularly close to, as well as her closest friends besides Ino - Shikamaru and Choji. All four of them had been in the same class since kindergarten.

"Everyone," Ino yelled out when Sakura had joined the group.

"After today we are officially Middle Schoolers!" The group cheered at her statement, even the lazy Shikamaru gave an unenthusiastic hurrah. Sakura giggled at her best friend's antics. Before the kids could celebrate further however the bell rang signally they had five minutes before the school day began, causing the group to grab their things and rush off inside.

After school, the four friends were driven home by Chouji's mom to his house to celebrate their end of elementary school. With Ino and Sakura leading the way, chattering about their plans for the summer, the children entered Choji's dark house. Once everyone was inside and Choji's mother had closed the door, the lights were flicked on.

"SURPRISE!" yelled Sakura, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru's parents. The living room was decorated in black, white, and gold streamers and balloons and a large banner that read "Congratulations Graduates!" Ino and Sakura squealed and clapped their hands, Choji was grinning hugely and hugging his mom, and even Shikamaru had a small smile on his face. Sakura's mom ushered the four onto the large burgundy couch in the middle of the room and sat them down. Once they were seated a long box wrapped in shiny gold paper was placed in front of each of them.

"Alright, on the count of three everyone open their presents," Shikamaru's mom said.

"One…two…and three!" The children eagerly tore into their presents, Shikamaru a bit more leisurely than the others. In the girls' boxes was a white dress shirt, a black bow tie, a dark blue suit jacket, a dark blue pleated skirt, grey knee high socks, and black mary-janes. The boys' boxes held a white dress shirt, a black neck tie, a dark blue suit jacket, dark blue slacks, black dress socks, and black simple dress shoes. On top of everything in each box was a gold pin in the shape of a crest with the letters HSA in fancy script engraved in the middle.

"Since you guys started school," Ino's dad explained, "we all opened accounts in your names and have saved up enough money to send all four of you to Hashirama Senju Academy for the next six years with a little left over for college."

"No way," Choji gasped, reverently touching the golden pin.

"Mom?" Sakura wondered, gazing at her mother.

"It's true," she replied. Ino screamed and leapt at her mother and father pulling them both into a hug. Sakura and Choji followed her lead. Shikamaru got up calmly and stood before his mother and father.

"Thank you, very much," he whispered looking at his feet, desperately trying to hold in his emotion.

"Geeze, this kid," his mom mumbled before pulling him into a hug.

"C'mon forehead, let's go try it on," Ino called picking up her box and heading upstairs to take over Choji's room. Sakura broke away from her parents' arms to follow, sticking her tongue out at Ino's name calling.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So everyone is heading to HSA except for Naruto what will happen? I don't know, there are two ways this could go and I'm leaning one way, but I'm not totally sure what I will decide. I'm doubtful every chapter will be this long, but I will try to make them at least five pages long, the key word being try.

If you are worried about the age, don't. I won't keep them this young for long, it's hard for me to write such innocent characters, they often come out flat. This fic will span at least until their graduation, anything after that I can't make any promises.

Although I've hinted at it I realize some of you may have missed this so I'll spell it out here: Kiba and Shino attended a small elementary school on the rich side of town. Naruto and Sasuke attended a large, public elementary school on the lower end of town. Sakura, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru attend a mid-sized, public elementary school around the middle to slightly wealthy part of town. Hashirama Senju Academy is in the rich part of town about ten minutes by car from Shino, Kiba, and Hinata's neighborhood. Itachi would have attended the elementary school Shino and Kiba did and Sasuke would have too for kindergarten through the beginning of second grade. Hinata, Neji, and Hanabi are homeschooled for their preschool – elementary years. Tenten went to the middly/slightly wealthy elementary school and Lee went to the lower elementary school.

Fusa means helpful woman.

Hinata's Seiko clock http:/www. seikoclocks .com/#Collection/Decor/All/AZ224G (take out spaces)

The shoes Hanabi picked out for Hinata

http:/www. sears .com/converse-girl-s-chuck-taylor-all-star-specialty-ox/p-036VA45155401P (take out spaces)

I do not nor have I ever liked Avril Lavigne. But that stupid Sk8tr Boi or whatever was everywhere when I was about twelve and all the silly trendy girls listened to it. I liked Puddle of Mudd around that time.

I will try to make shorter ANs, again no promises. You can skip them if you want. I will put a bold **IMPORTANT! **if there is something you really should read in the ANs.

Thank you for your time,

(heart) Bee


	2. Ch 2 Lonely Hearts

**Hashirama Senju Academy**

**Ch. 2**

**Lonely Hearts**

****_Rated T for light cussing and very mild innuendo_

It had been two days, two long, lonely days for Naruto. It was mid-afternoon and the preteen lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, alone in the room he shared with four other boys. He had not been in the mood to go out and play since his best friend Sasuke had left to move into the dorms of Hashirama Senju Academy. Sasuke had been his first and only friend. The other children had never liked him much; he was loud and obnoxious, truthful to the point of often being rudely blunt, and he loved playing pranks. If he had only one of those characteristics, it would have been okay, but with all three, people tended to avoid him as much as possible. When Sasuke had arrived at the orphanage when they were seven, he had been treated like royalty because everyone knew who his family had been and how much money was put away for the Uchiha heir to be given to him when he came of age. Naruto however treated him like he treated everyone else, rudely calling him jerk prince, bastard, and other unflattering nicknames. Annoyed at being treated so differently from everyone else, Naruto was a breath of fresh air for Sasuke. Sasuke also realized that when he hung out with Naruto everyone else left him alone. Naruto had just been happy that someone would spend any time with him. It did not take long for the two to become true friends who trusted only each other and over the years had become like brothers to each other.

Naruto let out a deep sigh and closed his burning eyes. It was going to take a while to get used to being completely alone again.

.Naruto.

Jaraiya tapped his foot, feeling stuffy and uncomfortable sitting in his lawyer's office. How he wished for some scotch on the rocks; it had been twenty-six hours since his last drink and he was longing for the burn of alcohol in his chest.

"I was expecting you a long time ago. You really put this off 'till the last minute Jiraiya," his lawyer said flipping open the first of many folders stacked in front of him.

"Yeah, it's been a hard few years since the kid died."

"It's been twelve years."

"Yeah, I just haven't been able to bring myself to deal with it all, but I figured I don't have a choice now."

"Not unless you want to ruin the baby's life."

"And I don't, so let's get down to business," Jiraiya replied. With that the lawyer pulled out a document consisting of five pages.

"Here is a copy of Minato and Kushina's will, which includes what they wanted for their, at the time unborn, son, Naruto," the lawyer stated handing the document over to Jiraiya.

"Should anything happen to both Minato and Kushina, all their assets are to be left to Naruto and to be given to him upon his graduation of high school or attainment of his GED. Without a high school diploma or GED he cannot gain any of these assets. Guardianship is to be given to the godfather, you. It also mentions the schools they want him to go to, I'm sure you can guess, and that they already have it all paid for. There is also to be a one-hundred dollar weekly allowance for the boy until his graduation," the lawyer said as Jiraiya perused the will. He removed a few more documents from the folder and sat them in front of Jiraiya.

"These are the documents that will grant you legal guardianship over Naruto. I already took care of everything after you called me a month ago and all you have to do is sign them. And while this isn't necessarily my job," the lawyer said, "since you're an old friend and I know this is a hard situation for you, I readied all the paperwork for Naruto's schooling and if you choose, the paperwork for him to stay in the dormitories for the at least the next two years, again they just need a couple signatures."

Jiraiya nodded and picked up a pen. He signed wherever the lawyer pointed.

"Congratulations Jiraiya, you're now the proud owner of a baby boy," the lawyer said, flipping through the documents to make sure nothing had been missed. Jiraiya rolled his eyes. The lawyer got up and turned around to make copies of the documents which he then handed to Jiraiya.

"You can take these to the orphanage and get Naruto or they can send him straight to the dormitories, that's up to you. I'm guessing you waited this long because you didn't want to deal with the kid so you don't even have to meet him if you don't want to." The lawyer shrugged and looked at Jiraiya, who was just staring at the papers now in his hands.

"Thanks," Jiraiya said weakly. He got up and extended his right hand to the lawyer, who took it firmly.

"Thank you for everything, Fukasaku."

"You're welcome," the balding, white haired man replied, gripping the other man's hand harder.

"I know it will be hard, but as your friend, I think you should get to know Naruto, I think it would be good for both of you," Fukasaku said and released his friend's hand. Jiraiya just swallowed and nodded, his throat too tight to reply and left the office. He walked a block to the closest bar and ordered the scotch he had been longing for. He swirled the amber liquid and two ice cubes in the short glass until they had completely fused together and downed it all in one swallow.

"That's not how you're supposed to drink that," came a woman's voice from behind him.

"Oh then care to show me the proper way, my dear Tsunade?" Jiraiya asked while signaling the bartender for another.

"You know I've been stopping by this bar almost every day since summer started, hoping to find you here. So, you finally sobered up long enough to visit Fukasaku?" the busty blonde asked, gesturing at the papers that sat next to Jiraiya. Jiraiya just nodded, swirling the ice cubes around in his second drink. Tsunade ordered a Kahlua and Cream and the two sat in silence both just sipping their drinks. Once done with her drink Tsunade spoke up.

"So what are you going to do Jiraiya?"

"I…I think that…I want to meet him."

"I think that would be good for both of you," Tsunade murmured, placing a hand on her old friends back. He sighed heavily.

"He's probably going to hate and resent me though, for leaving him to grow up in an orphanage the past twelve years," Jiraiya said, shaking his head when the bartender asked if he wanted another drink.

"Probably, but if he's anything like his parents, he'll forgive you easily," Tsunade replied, removing her hand from his back and sliding off her bar stool. Jiraiya just grunted.

"I really am happy to see you doing something besides just drinking and carousing. Well, you know where to find me if you need me," she said turning to walk away.

"Oh, Tsunade! What a brazen offer, if I _need _you. How about right now?" Jiraiya snickered, turning in his barstool to leer at his female friend. Tsunade clenched her fists and took a couple deep breaths.

"I'll let that one go for old time's sake, but next time you won't be so lucky," she snarled and stormed out of the bar. Jiraiya chuckled and laid some money on the bar and picked up the papers.

"Excuse me sir, this isn't enough," the bartender said, counting the money as Jiraiya got up.

"That's not enough for two scotches plus tip?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

"Well, it's enough for that, but I assumed you were paying for the lady's drink as well, since she's already gone."

"That sneaky little bitch," Jiraiya muttered under his breath, handing the bartender ten more bucks.

.Jiraiya.

Sasuke sat at his black computer desk, in a black rolling chair, in his single room in the junior wing of the boys 'dormitories at Hashirama Senju Academy. He had a book in his hands, but he was bored of reading, it seemed to be all he had done since he had unpacked three days ago. He was not used to being alone. For the first six and a half years of his life he had been like a leech to his older brother Itachi. Then, family members had begun to die and Itachi had become more solemn and serious, often ignoring his little brother. Then Itachi had left to live in the dorms of Hashirama Senju Academy. Only a few months later, their parents had died. Itachi had held Sasuke at the hospital where they had died and at the funeral, but then a woman had come and took Sasuke to the orphanage and Itachi had gone back to school. Itachi had only visited him once every year after that, on Sasuke's birthday.

The children at the orphanage had been in awe over him, all except one loud mouthed brat. The boy, short, a bit chubby, with blonde hair, blue eyes and scarred cheeks, seemed to repel the other children. He also seemed annoyed at all the attention that Sasuke was given. Still grieving over his parents' deaths and sore from the lack of affection from his brother, Sasuke despised the attention these sticky babies were pouring all over him, so he decided he would use the only repellent he could find, the boy.

At lunch on the fifth day at the orphanage Sasuke, like usual, found himself being pulled in six different directions by people wanting him to sit with their group, so he broke free from the grabby hands and strode to where the repellent sat alone picking at his food and sat down. The repellent looked up in shock and the grabbies stood a good ten feet away looking between the two boys. Finally, they walked off to sit at their own tables without another word. The repellent had worked, Sasuke was finally able to eat lunch in peace.

"What are you doing, jerk prince?" Naruto asked snidely. Well, it had been peaceful for a moment.

"I needed to get away from all of them," Sasuke said bluntly, gesturing to the entire room. "And they all seem to avoid you, so I hoped that if I hung out with you they would avoid me too." Naruto laughed.

"You're a freak," he replied, before digging into his food with new found gusto. Eventually the repellent had grown on him and become 'friend' and, though Sasuke would never, not even if his life were on the line, admit it, Naruto had become closer to him than his own flesh and blood brother.

So now, after three days of absolutely no Naruto, Sasuke felt lonely for the first time since his brother had left for school. He also found himself to be very bored; he had never realized how much Naruto had decided what he was going to do for the day, without him Sasuke had no ideas on how to spend his time. Sasuke banged the book down on his desk and left his room. He hated being so reliant on someone, because people left. His parents had left, his brother had left, and now Naruto was gone too and each time left Sasuke aching for them to return. It made him feel so weak and he hated it. He strode outside and towards the gym; he had heard older boys at the orphanage often say they worked out to get rid of their frustrations. He would do anything at that moment to just not feel.

.Sasuke.

It had now been four days since Sasuke had left and Naruto was still no more used to being alone. The other children avoided him even more than before and the teasing had picked up again. Before Sasuke had come and befriended him, the other children had teased Naruto about everything, his always messy hair, his shortness, the fact that he was a little chubby, that he was picked last at team sports in school, his usually bad grades, his naiveté, and especially about the scars on his cheeks. But then Sasuke had arrived and the other children had been too afraid to make fun of a friend of Sasuke Uchiha's. With Sasuke gone, however, the children picked up their teasing like they had never stopped, which Naruto supposed they never had, it had only been done behind his back while Sasuke was around. A knock on the door frame startled Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Naruto?" A girl in her early twenties asked, she was probably one of the many revolving college student volunteers, who stayed just long enough to learn your name, before leaving to continue their own lives.

"Yeah," he said getting up from his bed.

"They need you at the main office, if you'll follow me," she said pleasantly and began to walk away without waiting for an answer. Naruto solemnly followed her, knowing from experience there was no use talking to the girl, she wouldn't know why he was needed and he wasn't in the mood for her artificial cheeriness. The girl knocked on the main office door and peeked her head in to say something, Naruto heard someone say something back and the girl opened the door wider.

"You can go on in," she smiled widely at Naruto before walking away. Naruto hesitantly entered the room, scared that he had somehow done something wrong.

"Please close the door behind you," said Theresa who was the head of the orphanage. Naruto did so and faced the room which held Theresa and a large man with long white hair, in individual armchairs next to each other.

"Please take a seat," Theresa said gesturing to the two armchairs that sat across an oval coffee table from her and the man. Naruto's confusion mounted as he sat in one of the chairs, he had no idea who this man could be.

"You're a very lucky boy, Naruto," Theresa said giving him one of her bland smiles.

"Someone from your past has shown up." Naruto glanced over at the man who was staring at Naruto like he was a ghost or something.

"Someone from my past?" Naruto asked continuing to eye the strange man.

"Yes, Naruto, that's right. This is Jiraiya, he knew your mother and father. Mr. Jiraiya, perhaps you would like to explain the situation yourself," Theresa said giving the man a pointed look. Jiraiya swallowed, nodded, and straightened.

"Hey, kid, it's nice to meet you," Jiraiya started. Naruto just nodded, flabbergasted.

"I know you don't remember me, but I was at the hospital when you were born," Jiraiya continued looking off to the side and scratching his chin in awkwardness. When he didn't say anything for a few minutes Naruto spoke up.

"How did you know my parents?"

"Ah, I was a professor at Konoha University and I was your dad's mentor throughout high school and college. You see, he was really smart, so he started taking a few college classes when he was fourteen and well, he ended up being like a son to me," Jiraiya explained looking at Naruto now, who was quiet.

"I was there when he met Kushina, gave him advice when they started dating, helped him pick out an engagement ring, I was best man at his wedding, I was the first person he told when he found out Kushina was pregnant. I don't have any actual children and Minato's mom died when he was young and he and his father were never close, so we became like father and son," Jiraiya had to pause and collect himself for a minute, he didn't want this kid's first impression of him to be a weepy old mess.

"He even named me your godfather," Jiraiya stated after he felt he could talk without tearing up.

"So you're…my godfather?" Naruto asked, his brow furrowed, trying to take in everything that was said.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here," Jiraiya replied smiling at the boy who looked so much like his dead Minato.

"I've had a godfather all this time and no one told me," Naruto growled out his fists clenching on top of his knees.

"As far as the orphanage was aware, you had no family Naruto, or else we would have tried to get in contact with Mr. Jiraiya," Theresa spoke up, obviously wanting to make sure that it was known she was innocent in the whole matter.

"Why are you here?" Naruto snarled, tears welling up in his eyes. "Why even bother showing up after twelve years? You obviously didn't want me to leave me alone for so long. So why _the hell are you here_?" Naruto screamed at him, standing up with the force of his emotions. Jiraiya put his head in his hands and took a deep shuddering breath before facing the boy.

"I don't expect you to understand or to forgive me right away. It's not that I didn't want you, it's that the very idea of you reminded me so much of Minato that I couldn't deal with it. So I was a coward, I ran away. I ran away and drowned my memories and responsibilities in alcohol. But I've been practically around the world and am back where I started. I've spent the last year sobering up. I got myself a place to live, I got my job back at KU, and now, well I'm here," Jiraiya said looking into Naruto's bloodshot eyes.

Silence rang in the room. Theresa shifted uncomfortably and stood.

"Well, I'm going to leave you two to finish talking for a bit and I'll be back," she said and scuttled out of the room, closing the door behind her. Silence rang again.

"So what now?" Naruto finally snapped, never one to withstand silence for long.

"Well, I have a copy of your parents' will if you'd like to read it," Jiraiya said meekly, holding the papers out. Naruto took them and for the next few minutes read them through. One thing stuck out.

"They want me to go to Hashirama Senju Academy?" he asked.

"Yes," Jiraiya replied.

"And it's already paid for?"

"Yeah."

Naruto blinked a few times, before a huge grin slowly spread its way across his face, like sunshine breaking its way through the clouds. With a whoop of joy, Naruto leapt up and began dancing around the room. Jiraiya, startled, jumped up, not understanding Naruto's sudden extreme joy. Abruptly Naruto ran over to Jiraiya and threw his arms around the much bigger man's waist.

"Thanks, old man!" Jiraiya grunted and Naruto backed away.

"So when do I get to leave this place?" he asked, and some sunshine spread over Jiraiya too.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Sorry for the moody characters in this chapter and the sappy ending, I promise there will be lighter parts to come and Naruto will become annoyingly cheerful sometime soon. All the other kids are having a normal unimportant summer so they didn't get any airtime this chapter.

I decided to have Naruto join HSA at the same time as everyone else, because there is a scene I really want to happen that only works if he starts at the same time.

I am not sure how I am going to go about revealing the pairing to you in this fic. I am partial to not telling you at all and letting you just read the fanfic like you would a regular story and figure out the pairings as you go. That said I understand that you probably do not want to invest yourself in a fanfic that ends up being about a pairing you hate. What I am thinking is to let you decide. I will not expressly state any pairing in the fic itself, but if you really want to know about a specific pairing you can ask me in a review. But if you ask me what pairing this fic will contain you will be sorry, because I will tell you all of the pairings major and minor and will not tell you how important they are :P So please only ask about 1-3 pairings and I will answer you based on how specific your question is and how much I want to give away.

Next chapter school begins!

Thank you for reading and don't forget reviews are like fuel!

Bee


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